This section is intended to provide a background or context to the embodiments that are recited in the claims. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description and claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Synchronization between various entities in a wireless communication network is often essential for proper operations of many communication networks. To this end, many systems and protocols mandate strict frequency and/or timing synchronization requirements. One example of such a requirement can be found in the third generation partnership project (3GPP) revision 6 protocol, which requires that a base station within a wireless communication network maintain a carrier frequency value that is accurate to within 50 parts per billion (ppb).
One method of achieving synchronization in a packet network is to connect a highly accurate clock, called a master clock, to the network and allow it to exchange timing information (e.g., the current time at the master clock) across the network with other less accurate and less expensive clocks, called slave clocks. The timing information that is sent across such networks, however, is subject to transit delays due to the time it takes for the timing information to reach its destination. Such transit delays can vary from one transit instance to another and are, therefore, treated as random numbers. In order to acquire and maintain synchronization between the master and slave clocks, the timing information is exchanged on an ongoing basis, which enables statistical analysis of the collected data to provide estimates of the transit delay values.
The exchange of large amounts of timing information, however, can reduce the signaling capacity of the network and result in the consumption of valuable computational and memory resources at entities that operate within such networks. Moreover, the exchange of such timing information is sometimes carried out on a regular basis, without much consideration as to an actual need of such timing information for a particular network entity and/or the capacity of such a network entity to store and process the received timing information.